Dublin student reunited with laptop following JK Rowling search campaign
The Dublin student who mislaid his laptop in a taxi last week has been reunited with it after a viral search campaign headed by JK Rowling.
Jamal Sul had left his laptop containing valuable PhD notes in a taxi last Friday, after a night out celebrating his thesis correction.
He posted a message on Facebook on Wednesday night, informing friends about the incident and asking them to spread the word in an effort to track the taxi driver down.
His message came to the attention of the Harry Potter author who shared it on her Twitter page and it wasn’t long before Jamal’s search campaign went viral and reached the attention of the taxi driver.
The wife of the taxi driver reached out to Newstalk after Jamal appeared on the radio station to discuss his plight on Thursday.
“I was worried that [the caller] wasn’t legit so Newstalk sent a driver out to retrieve the laptop for me. They had it waiting in the studio and surprised me with it,” the NUI Maynooth student told Independent.ie.
“The driver only discovered the laptop in his car on Monday and had tried to contact me on Facebook. They were afraid that it would go missing in lost property so they wanted to reach out to me directly.
“Once the news got around yesterday, it wasn’t long before they found me.”
Jamal, who is doing a PhD in therapies for multiple sclerosis, said he can’t believe his good fortune.
“It’s amazing what the internet can do. The public and JK Rowling’s support is unreal. I feel so thankful to know that there are such good people in the world.”
Source: independent.ie